If you like something…

Author Notes: Butter + Garlic+ Shrimp...but how to make a unique and wonderful butter sauce for pasta? My mind kept wandering to the legendary Chef Alfredo tossing fettuccini with copious amounts of butter and cheese gently endlessly over a heated plate with his golden forks, delivering the shimmering strands practically into the mouths of anxiously awaiting diners. But really who has that kind of equipment, golden forks, heated plates? Then I wondered if I could dare to write a recipe that instructed the eater to eat from a pan over the stove? I guarantee that each and every one of us has, at one time or another indulged in such private slurpy platelessness, however unless you have a truly generous size stove it could prove awkward during a dinner party. Then I remembered a dish called linguine e cartoccio, al dente pasta, just tossed with tomato, hot peppers, fresh seafood & a bit of pasta water till it just comes together, then wrapped in the shape of a ship in parchment paper and baked in the oven until the juices mingled and were absorbed, presented to each diner like a gift, opened table side, piping hot. And then I thought, I bet I can do this with butter, and garlic, and shrimp.

Now that all being said a note on the accompanying photos...they are not fabulous, I've no excuse except somehow it became Wednesday ...and there was a sleet storm which turned to "Thundersnow" here in Philly, and I chose to stop at the wine store over the fishmonger. I used small shrimp because they were what I had in the freezer, and I burned the breadcrumbs, but it was 9pm, and the cuisinart had already been cleaned.

I do not suggest using small shrimp in this recipe, they get tough from cooking that long, if that's your only option, don'te sautee them, toss the pasta in garlicvermouthbutter and then toss in raw shrimp before putting it all in the parchment packets.

Regardless of burnt breadcrumbs and kind tough shrimp, it was still pretty darn good. —Aliwaks

Serves 4

1pound (box) Dried linguine

6tablespoons butter (great butter will elevate this)

1 cup bread crumbs, panko or fresh

6 large cloves garlic, chopped

1/4cup Chopped parsley

1/4cup vermouth

1tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

20 Large shrimp cleaned & peeled

1/2teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more)

2 tablespoons Olive oil

4 thin sliced lemon

Parchment boats .... take two sheets of parchment paper (or two 2' pieces of parchment paper from a roll)...twist each side till it resembles a bon bon, or a viking ship. tie two edges with butchers twine ( or just twist it really hard if you don't have any butcher's twine, don't be tempted to use rubber bands...they will melt, learn from my mistakes)...see picture #2 make 1 per person

Afterwards...set a huge pot of heavily salted water up to boil.....meanwhile Melt 2 Tb of butter in saute pan, add half the lemon zest & all the bread crumbs…saute till brown & crunchy set aside

Add Pasta to water, still it around a bit ..when it comes up to boil check it...it should still have a little bit of white showing..

Right after you drop the pasta...gently heat olive oil & half the remaining butter in a saute pan large enough to hold the shrimp & the pasta , over very low heat, add garlic, remaining lemon zest & hot pepper flakes

When garlic is translucent add vermouth, raise the heat and let it bubble till it reduces slightly

To Serve Open up and eat from parchment, if you are the type of person who must have grated cheese with pasta, pecorino would be better than parmigiano (pic 8)

I imagine this would be sublime with shelled lobster (poached lightly, ahead of time) or crab or all three. If you wanted to go completely mad you could make a lobster or shrimp butter and use that in place of regular old butter. James Patterson’s Sauces book has an excellent though time consuming recipe for Lobster butter. If you want to make it a bit more Frenchified you could substitute equal amounts tarragon & chive for the parsley and a concasse of tomato wouldn’t hurt either.